Update in Post 4: Breastfeeding one & pumping for another?

[amberdcm]

x-posted to my DDC

My girlfriend is very unexpectedly fostering a new baby girl (unexpectedly, as in she received a "will you foster" call in the morning & picked up the bambina that same evening! Ack!!). The baby is three days old and is the biological sister of my friend's two (previously fostered/now adopted) young sons. In the case of this child, although they are lacking jobs and housing, the bio-parents are now clean/sober - have been for a while - and are working hard at getting their act together. Therefore, there is a very good chance that this sitch will not end in adoption and this newborn LO will be returned to the bio-parents at some future point.

Yet, for the time being and for a good span of the foreseeable future, this teeny tiny being is a permanent part of my friend's brood.

I've offered to pump for this babers once my milk supply is good & established. I'm due 6/29, and what the heck I figure. Milk for everyone! I was an extremely successful & confident breast feeder with my son. No latch on problems, produced in abundance, nursed him for 3 years. But, I was never much of a pumper, and when he began refusing expressed bottles around 2 months old we put the pump away and never looked back. So, all booby all the time, and that's pretty much what I know.

I'm searching for really solid lactation advice about breastfeeding one, while pumping for another. I imagine my friend's babe will have to wait for a while to get the liquid gold, but once that time comes I'd really like to supply in abundance. I was recently perusing a facebook pro-bf site and caught a comment from a woman who said she pumped 30oz of milk for a friend's adopted daughter for an entire year while bf her own; but, now I can't find it. =(

That, however, is the quantity I'm talking about!!!

Anyone?

[ewe+lamb]

It's all about supply and demand really, the more your LO nurses and the more you pump the more your body will produce - as long as the breast is stimulated correctly it should produce. If you had difficulties pumping for your ds earlier on it may just because your heart wasn't in it as such - the breasts are there why pump as well, however this time around the case scenario is different and therefore sounds that pumping for this little one is very close to your heart. One way to pump which may help is to do it whilst nursing on one breast and pump of the other, i think that you'll manage just fine - you could even start pumping now - although it could bring on contractions for your current pregnancy - maybe try it a couple of times and see how things go.

Finally, thank you, there are not enough women like you - this is a huge commitment on your part and I am in awe of your ability to give and love in this way.

[mambera]

OK this might be a little out there...but could you try (with the consent of your friend and of the bio-mom) to latch the foster baby?

Reason being that two suckling babes will stimulate your supply better than a baby and a pump. Also if you could feed the foster babe directly for 1-2 feedings a day you would decrease your pumping burden.

Other than that, the early weeks are crucial to supply so I would start pumping between feeds ASAP, both to boost supply and to accustom your body to letting down for a pump. I would not 'wait to establish a supply' because that way your body will establish the appropriate supply for *one* baby who is directly bf'ing. That could be harder to change later on.

[amberdcm]

Update

The sweet little baber will be going home to her birth parents today. And, so my career as a breastfeeder of one & pumper for another is over before it even started.

But, what wonderful news for two people who have worked so hard over the past two years to be in a place where they could raise a baby after giving away 8. Much love to them & to my ever amazing girlfriend. The world is most definitely a better place because she is in it.